Natural Light 68g Lagoon - @su0ng.1

shrimped · Mar 6, 2022

Hey everyone how’s it going? I’m known by @shrimped on Reef2Reef or @su0ng.1 on Instagram. I post everything I post here + short stories (like little short videos) on Instagram. Feel free to take a look. Been around the Saltwater side of the hobby for almost a decade. Took a small 1 and a half year break around 1 and a half year ago. Anyways finally got the chance to upgrade from an ADA 30C
11” x 11” x 11” - 7 gallons
to an
AquaJapan 120S
47.24” x 23.62” x 14.7” - 68 gallons

It’s pretty much same dimensions as the UNS 120S but h*ll nah I ain’t waitin for 6 more months for the UNS. Larger UNS tanks + their respected stands are currently on heavy back order. Beautiful tanks though.

The AquaJapan looks to be of pretty darn good quality, low iron glass and all. Thanks to ReefFactory US located at Placentia, CA for helping me out with the tank and stand. Owner of ReefFactory, Sean really takes care of his customers. Been to countless stores throughout my whole life whether it be fresh or salt water focused. None comes close to the customer service at ReefFactory. Looking to visit and need tips and tricks to give yourself a nice discount on almost everything there? PM me, this trick helps both the shop and you to save money.

shrimped · Mar 6, 2022

Plans - Going with a natural look to it + mix in some freshwater equipment. Trying to also hide as much equipment as possible, like my ADA 30C build.

I’m personally getting bored of tanks with washed out heavy blue lights, bright neon coral, and 1” pieces of coral that can pay for a semester of community college classes. If you are truly enjoying the hobby through those means, more power to you. There’s nothing wrong with that if it’s what you like and what you can afford. Just not my taste right now.

The main plan for this build is to accentuate the natural shape and colors of corals and stationary inverts that don’t fluoresce under blues. The things that look best under white daylight such as Sun coral, gorgonians, macro algae, feather duster worms, Japanese Pink Nepthea, you get what I mean.

shrimped · Mar 6, 2022

Equipment:

- Oase Biomaster Thermo 350
- Aquario Neo Flow Premium
- 2x White AI Prime 16HD
- UNS Mini Surface Skimmer

More to come. Lots of equipment i’m still debating.

Devaji · Mar 7, 2022

nice tank! can we get pics of the stand.

I am setting up my 1st FW planted to go along with my reef. i went with a Oase thermo 600 for 33 US gal.
i was told go big the canister by all the FW peeps so I did.
I bet you are going to have to clean the lilly pipe weekly one the tank is mature to keep them clear.

i'll fallow along I lot of reef peeps tonot like canister filters but with the easy of the Oase prefeilter I bet it will do pretty good.

keep the updates coming!

NoahLikesFish · Mar 7, 2022

excited to see your next tank! would be awesome to see a giant school of cardinals. mabye add some mangrove branches and leaves into some rubble idk how it would affect water but i assume mangroves are a higher ph than other trees cause all their water is at 8.2

MartinM · Mar 7, 2022

Looking forward to this! I also love equipment minimalism, and natural looking tanks. No blues or frags here either! Do you have photos of your other systems here? I don’t use social media.

Luna Lagoona · Mar 7, 2022

Good luck, and power to you for bucking the norms! I like a whiter blue mix than most but I will be interested to see how yours pans out.

From the title I thought you might be doing natural "Sun" light as your main light source. I have seen it done but it's tricky!

MartinM · Mar 7, 2022

My tanks get a few hours of NSL per day and it’s beautiful, makes both my halides and my leds look like ugly toys emitting wannabe light!

NoahLikesFish · Mar 7, 2022

MartinM said:
My tanks get a few hours of NSL per day and it’s beautiful, makes both my halides and my leds look like ugly toys emitting wannabe light!

do you have a build thread? also i have a question of natural sun, my tank gets about 2 hours of direct sun in the morning, is this paired with a small 1000 lumen 12w lightbulb led good enough for a 20x10x12" aquarium. its like 1" from the water. it looks pretty bright honestly. i am thinking of replacing the lightbulb with some sort of cheap LED (aquaknight which has 300 PAR at the top of the tank). i want to keep some of my sps in there so i need a lot of light

shrimped · Mar 7, 2022

Devaji said:
nice tank! can we get pics of the stand.

I am setting up my 1st FW planted to go along with my reef. i went with a Oase thermo 600 for 33 US gal.
i was told go big the canister by all the FW peeps so I did.
I bet you are going to have to clean the lilly pipe weekly one the tank is mature to keep them clear.

i'll fallow along I lot of reef peeps tonot like canister filters but with the easy of the Oase prefeilter I bet it will do pretty good.

keep the updates coming!

Thanks! I will send pictures of the stand here when I get back home. The trick to not cleaning canisters so often is just to throw out any mechanical filtration. Just running AquaChar (like carbon but have enough surface area for beneficial bacteria to house). From my experience with lily pipes on reef setups, they start to accumulate film algae about every 2 weeks. Cleaning has been pretty quick and easy, unsure if its because Aquario Neo uses plastic rather than glass. Looking to control nutrients by 3 things: Macro Algae, bacteria, and Sol Azul Oysters. Found this great idea using Sol Azul Oysters by @Dr. Dendrostein . 68 Gallons should be enough to safely house a few Sol Azul Oysters once its matured.

NoahLikesFish said:
excited to see your next tank! would be awesome to see a giant school of cardinals. mabye add some mangrove branches and leaves into some rubble idk how it would affect water but i assume mangroves are a higher ph than other trees cause all their water is at 8.2

Thanks man! I currently have a good amount of 30" - 40" mangroves sitting in a freshwater bucket ready to be acclimated to saltwater for this build. Some sorta schooling fish is a must for this tank. Going with either Masked Gobies, Red Spot Cardinals, or ORA Yellow Cardinals. Whatever I find available first. All stay under 1.5" so I may keep around 10 or more.

shrimped · Mar 7, 2022

MartinM said:
Looking forward to this! I also love equipment minimalism, and natural looking tanks. No blues or frags here either! Do you have photos of your other systems here? I don’t use social media.

Thanks for being interested! The only other system I currently have is the ADA 30C build you've just checked out. Unfortunately that tank will be taken down in a couple weeks. This current 68g build will be the only system I will have running. I will try my best to post as much of the Instagram contents onto this thread.

Luna Lagoona said:
Good luck, and power to you for bucking the norms! I like a whiter blue mix than most but I will be interested to see how yours pans out.

From the title I thought you might be doing natural "Sun" light as your main light source. I have seen it done but it's tricky!

Thanks! More updates to come for sure!

shrimped · Mar 7, 2022

60lbs of dry Marco Rocks and pretty much everything else needed for aquascaping should arrive tomorrow. Found an old MP40WQD sitting in the garage. Will use that for flow. Also never purchased anything online internationally. Stay tuned to see what it is!

MartinM · Mar 8, 2022

NoahLikesFish said:
do you have a build thread? also i have a question of natural sun, my tank gets about 2 hours of direct sun in the morning, is this paired with a small 1000 lumen 12w lightbulb led good enough for a 20x10x12" aquarium. its like 1" from the water. it looks pretty bright honestly. i am thinking of replacing the lightbulb with some sort of cheap LED (aquaknight which has 300 PAR at the top of the tank). i want to keep some of my sps in there so i need a lot of light

I’ll PM you so I don’t hijack the great thread here

shrimped · Mar 8, 2022

MartinM said:
I’ll PM you so I don’t hijack the great thread here

No worries, you may post on here. I’d love to see it as well!

NoahLikesFish · Mar 8, 2022

i just got my live rock! any ideas on the aquascape, the greenish rocks were already in there. i was considering making an area of untouched sand in the middle and on the left making an arch. this pic wasnt taken with the bulb on

shrimped · Mar 8, 2022

NoahLikesFish said:
i just got my live rock! any ideas on the aquascape, the greenish rocks were already in there. i was considering making an area of untouched sand in the middle and on the left making an arch. this pic wasnt taken with the bulb on

dry smaller sized marco rock + glue + accel

shrimped · Mar 8, 2022

Aquascape in Session

shrimped · Mar 9, 2022

25% Complete. Done for the night.

NoahLikesFish · Mar 9, 2022

i found a humongus tunicate on my live rock, its like the size of my thumb. its one of the solitary kinds i think. i have kent marine snow that i can feed it